I have always loved the way that morning glories look when they are in full bloom.
They wrap themselves around and around and offer up the brightest, most beautifully formed trumpets that look as if they were made to greet each day with sound as well as an exposion of color.
But sadly, living in the Pacific N/W they die off each fall and we are left with a pile of compost, withered and without color until we start the process again the following spring.
So I decided, enough is enough. If nature won’t keep these beautiful, bright trumpets on my trellis to keep me smiling during the long dark days of winter then I will have to see what I can do to remedy that. And I set about finding a solution. It took years and I think there were more than just a few people that were rolling their eyes and asking me “are you still working on THAT??”
I started out by attending a class at Georgie’s (www.georgies.com) Ceramic and Clay Co. I wanted to learn how to manipulate the clay into the defined trumpet shape. Over and over and over I made some of the most deformed, silly, comical cones. They looked like clown hats, they looked like cones used in street repair, they looked like anything but morning glories.
I finally got one to look like a hibiscus so I figured I was on the right track (at least it was a flower!)
Then I got some prototypes that I wanted to work with and called Brett at Mudsharks mudsharkstudios.com
They were WONDERFUL to work with and before I knew it I had a mold that would allow me to cast 6 individual flower styles at one time.
Next, I went to work on glazes. I wanted something that would withstand the temperature changes of over 100 in summer to well below freezing in winter. But…I did not want it to shine like glazes do. I can not tell you how many people told me “it can’t be done” “you can’t do that”. But there was one person who said it could, and told me how to do it. Christy Runyan at Georgies kept insisting that I use Amaco Velvet Underglaze. I contacted Amaco and they told me “no, don’t do it, it won’t work”. But Christy was persistant and told me to just believe it and do it. She is a true professional and I went with her advice.
I started mixing colors and tracking those that I liked and those that I didn’t.
I ended up with some mixed colors that I was thrilled with.
But the question remained. Would they keep those terrific colors through the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter? Outside all year long?
I could only think of one way to find out…put them out there and see what happens.
I put them in flower pots and flower beds. I put them on the patio.
I tried to make their sun, rain, shade exposure as diverse as I could in every area of our yard.
Now they have come through another winter so they have been exposed to two summers and two winters. The flowers are coming up around them and after two years they have become part of the landscaping. But Christy was right, and they are every bit as lovely as they were when I put them out there two years ago, enough so that this winter I had a humming bird trying repeatedly to get into one for nectar!
Thanks Christy! I could not have gotten these beautiful colors without your advice and persistance.
